*OK A-bike wheel.
BUT NO Old TVs or Computer Monitors!!!!!!
……. “These are machines that extends our sensory apparatus, our ability to map the world…” Giuliana Bruno on Rebecca Horn
Click here to download a PDF of the syllabus
Until the twentieth century representation of the human form was central to sculpture. In modern and contemporary art, the scale of sculpture is directly related to the human form and phenomenological experience. This course will parallel the history of sculpture as a temporal and a spatially dynamic form. We will explore the mechanical form and functions of the body, the transformation of functional domestic forms and the physical presence of architectonic form.
We will begin with a group skills project. Each of you will learn to weld, cut and bend steel.
In the first part of this course we will investigate the mechanical form as it relates to the body. We will explore the advances in mechanization and automation in the first quarter of the century that fostered a change in the way artists viewed the world in motion. Tom Flynn’s essay, "Welcome to the Machine," will provide us with the historical examples of temporal works that mimic industrial fabrication and mechanization.Metal fabrication, both welding and pop riveting, and paper and cloth casting will be covered. For the project you will fabricate a work that directly fits on to of mimics the function of a body. A work based on clothing or support systems, a breathing machine or a set of arm extenders, a work that uses technology to extend your ability. The Essay, Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed will serve as a central text. The work of Lucy Orta, Rebecca Horn and others will be focused on.
In the second project you will entail the recycling and re-invention of house hold objects. You will re-fabricate a form so that it has a new and improved life and perhaps a completely poetic or new “higher level” function. We will look at Alan Raths inventive works as well as Nam June Paik. The idea for this project is completely connected to the fact that we have massive amounts of garbage left in our world. Can we reuse this stuff and if some how?
In the last project we will investigate the notion of gestalt or phenomenological experience. You will be asked to make a work that expands the field of sculpture, moving it from the pedestal in a gallery to the world by making something that is architectural in scale and scope. The work must be made collaboratively and be transportable, so that you can give your Reed Art Viewers a new experience.
You work, draw and read, spending at least 3-6 hours out side of class time.
You do your work in the studio, not at home
You do your work for yourself, not me.
I am a resource and a reference for you I have provided you with:
1. A set of studio and intellectual problems to work through.
2. A studio and facility to make work in.
3. Supplies, resources, and tools.
We are all ultimately collaborators.
I will aid you in fabricating what ever it is you wish.
I realize that we all have an enormous amount to do and multiple things going on.
Do not let that stop you from creating work.
Making art means getting organized focused, working out technical problems, and cleaning up after you have completed the task.
The Studio is open to you 24 hours a day. I can issue you a key.
The studio shop and welding facility is open from12-6 everyday.
Laura Dalton can assist you after classes and on Friday.
The cabinet in the studio will hold hand tools and other equipment.
Please let us know if you need something.
Put your name on a locker and please share it with a classmate.
Get a lock for your locker!
*Clay Tools (In book store)
Tool box- shoebox, or what ever.
Wire, thin bendable
*Matt knife
*Scissors \
Pliers
*Sketchbook
Work gloves (particularly if you want to weld!)
Bucket
Wire cutters, pliers and clamps. (Good for welding)
*Graph Paper and trace paper
*Pencils
Various cloth for casting, (bring in rags any thing cotton will do.)
You will need to purchase other materials during the semester. Sources for hand tools: Fred Myers, The Tool Peddler. For wood: Brown Lumber, Builders Square. For Steel: The Steelyard. Plastics: Tap Plastics, Metric Plastics. For odd things: Wacky Willies, Hippo Hardware.
You will find the phone numbers on the cabinet next to the phone.
I keep notes on a weekly basis; you are welcome to discuss this with me at any time. I do not assign letter grades to projects. I record grades only at mid term and finals.
Attendance—30%
Attend all classes. Be On time!!!!!
Participation—35%
You’re input and interest in the class.
Your willingness to share ideas visually and verbally.
Assignments—25%
Turn in projects on time. Generation of basic ideas and exploration of solutions.
Visual organization of your forms.
Conceptual thought process put into visual forms.
Clean Up 10%
There will be 2 clean up sessions during the semester, one during mid term and another during finals week
You must participate in the clean up time to get a grade for the class.
Additionally you must always clean up the studio after you are through working.
Do not leave your work on the tables or blocking passageways. Dusts off saws when you are done, sweep the floor, clean the buckets when you are done with plaster, and wipe the tables. Ultimately, try to leave the studio in better condition than when you entered it!
Laura and I are Not Your Cleaning Ladies.
28. Intro-Review the class/ Slides
Divide the class-1. Welding/2.Stencils.
Reading: “Passages in Modern Sculpture”
”Welcome to the Machine”
30.Look at Slides. Group 1-Welding lessons.
Group 2: Stencil out of Massonate.
Friday: Group 1-Welding lessons. 12-5pm Sign-up with Laura.
Group 2- Finish Stencils/Models Idea.
READING: LUCY ORTA
4. Work in class. Welding/ Plasma
Intro: Processes-Sodering, Sewing
5.LUCY ORTA LECTURE 7PM VOLLUM
6. Slides -Prep for “The Body Mimicked” Contemporary artists, Rebecca Horn ,Anthony Gormly, Jana Strenbeck.
Work time- Group 1: Intro: Processes-Sobering, Sewing
Group 2: Welding/ Plasma
Friday- Finish Welding lessons. 12-5pm Sign-up with Laura.
Build Models
Reading: Rebecca Horn/The Body Transformed
11. Present The AMERICAS a Puzzle
Meetings/ work time.
Reading: Lucy Orta
13. Rebecca Horn/ The Body Transformed/ Lucy Orta.
Meetings/-Begin work for project in class.
Friday – 3 hours of work!
NICK CAVE, public lecture
Friday, February 15, 6:30, Vollum Lounge
SATURDAY FEB 16 James Turrell-PNCA
18.Work time
20. Work time- Gerri will be away.
Friday: – 3 hours of work!
FAITH RINGGOLD
Sunday, February 24, 3 p.m., Kaul Auditorium
25. Work time.
27. Critique: The Body Transformed, The Body Mimicked
Reading: “ Forms of the Ready Made: Duchamp and Brancusi”
“The Creative Act- Marcel Duchamp”
3.Slides- Transformation and Invention
Reading: Tim Hawkinson, Alan Rath, Nam June Piak
5. Slides- Recycle-reuse +Tim Hawkenson, Alan Rath, Nam June Piak
Make Models/ Meetings.
Friday: 3 Hours, Build Models- gather materials.
10. Make Models/ Meetings
12.Work in class.
Friday: 3 Hours of work
24. Work in class.
26. Work in class
Friday: 3 Hours of work
31. Critique - Re-Cycle- Re -Invention
Reading: Sculpture in The Expanded Field
2. Slides Intro: The Expanded Field, Transportable Art
Video, Maya Lynn, James Turrell
Discussion, Groups selected.
Friday: Meet with your group + with Laura.
7.Slides: Public art as Action.
9. Build Models
14. Meeting with students to plan projects
16. Make Proposals to group- Drawing, models ect.
21-30Group work times- You must attend class and meet with Gerri each day.
April19.- must turn in project proposals to Phys Plant!
Final Crit
Make a Stencil out of Masonite.
Cut Steel Rod.
Weld a cube out of steel rod.
Cut out your country with a plasma cutter.
Put the country on the top and side.
Write/burn the name of the country on the sheet.
Learn to weld pencil rod steel with the Mig Welder
Learn to weld sheet with a Oxy Acediline Welder.
Learn to cut steel with a Plasma Cutter.
In Motion-“ The futurist movement, founded in Italy in 1909 by the poet Filippo Marinetti- and later attracting the artists such as Umberto Boccioni-sought means of over turning the ossified, orthodox structures of academics and replacing them with modalities of a machine aesthetic which celebrated speed, power, modernity. As a body born from a fusion of the organic and the technological, the man as a machine moving through space, the figure can be read as the quintessential twenty first-century body.” Flynn
Process- we will look at advances in mechanization and automation in the first quarter of the century that brought about a change in the way that artist viewed the world and in the way in which they expressed that view.
In your work, look at the mechanical essence of the body form. Extract, abstract or reference anatomical forms. Consider making machine like form that has human proportions- consider making a mechanical object that extends our bodies possibilities.
Look at the structure of clothing and how we use them.
Ideas- sleeping bags- necklaces-hats- shoes- gloves-glasses-jackets-corsets-tents-
2 Major exhibitions, Extreme Beauty at the MET in 2002 and Extreme Textiles at The Copper Hewitt in 2005 will serve as example works. Please look over these web sites!!
Materials- Your primary materials will be metal and cloth. The scale of the work needs to be in relation to your body. That is the body must feel that it can fit into the form.
Metal fabrication, riveting, and welding will be covered. For those of you who have not worked with steel and wish to learn, you will need to put extra time in to practice before you fabricate your work. Sobering of copper will be covered and sewing using a conventional and an industrial machine.
Readings and Essays- Please make sure you are keeping up with the Articles given. Your work will have a deepened perspective after reading and seeing the works used as examples. You will need to write a short essay on the readings.
Flynn, Tom. "Welcome to the Machine," The Body in Three Dimensions (New York City: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998)
Giuliana Bruna “Interiors Anatomies of the Bride Machine” Rebecca Horn
Koda, Harold –“ Intro”- Extreme BeautyThe Body Transformed
Pinto, Roberto, “Survey “ Collective Intelligence: The Work of Lucy Orta
Artists/Exhibitions
Lucy Orta http://studioorta.free.fr/lucy_orta.html
Rebecca Horn http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_66.html
Jean Shin, http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/projects_81.html
http://www.frederieketaylorgallery.com/2004Mar.html
http://www.elise.com/weblog/archives/000323jean_shin_house_of_cards.php
Ann Hamilton, http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/hamilton/
http://www.skny.com/lasso-bin/artist_detail.lasso?-token.ID=40
Jana Sterbak, http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_work_e.jsp?iartistid=5230
http://www.artnet.com/artist/16091/Jana_Sterbak.html
STELARC
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/
Yayoi Kusama: http://www.bombsite.com/archive/kusama/portfolio/index.html; http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1998/kusama/
Extreme Beauty:
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Extreme_Beauty/body_transformed_images.html
Extreme Textiles:
http://cooperhewitt.org/extexsitelet/
The Fabric Workshop
http://www.fabricworkshop.org/artists/video/suh.php
A short project using junk and your new welding, sobering and sewing skill.
Questions: How can the things in our domestic environment become inspiration?
Can they take on a higher function?
Think about the things in your world. Do they inspirer you?
Is your world visual – stimulating- interesting- exciting?
Could you imagine a new way to use that toaster, a turntable, a dictionary, and a breadbox?
What become of al of the non-useable commodities in thrift store and junk piles?
What to DO: Find a domestic form that is no larger than a breadbox*. Make sure it is a broken and a piece of junk. Find some more junk- Get it all together to have a dynamic synergy so that they have a happy marriage.
Make something useful out of the old, the used the already made, the junk, the stuff left over and the things of the past.
Get the piece moving. Get electric, light sound action.
Have fun! Or at least try.
*OK A-bike wheel.
BUT NO Old TVs or Computer Monitors!!!!!!
Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has not importance. He CHOSE it!
He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view- created a new thought for that object.
As for Plumbing that is absurd. The only works of Art America has given are her Plumbing and her bridges.”
Marcel Duchamp, Speaking about the Richard Mutt Case- “The Fountain”
Readings:
Krause, Roselyn “Forms of Ready Made: Duchamp and Brancusi” Passages in Modern Sculpture
Grosenick, Uta, “ Mona Hatoum”, “Andrea Zittle” Women Artists
Marcel Duchamp “The Richard Mutt Case”
Grachos,Louis, “Body Language and the Art of Alan Rath”
Simon, Joan, Ann Hamilton
Artist:
Marcel Duchamp - http://www.understandingduchamp.com/
Alan Rath - http://www.alanrath.org/
Yinka Shonibare - http://www.dareonline.org/themes/translations/shonibare.html; http://www.dialnsa.edu/iat97/johannesburg/alt_currents/shonibare.html
Leonardo Drew - http://userpages.chorus.net/mac/drew/drew.htm; http://www.fabricworkshopandmuseum.org/exhibitions/drew.php; http://www.alexanderandbonin.com/artists/hatoum/hatoum.html
Andrea Zittel - http://www.zittel.org/
Nam June Paik - http://www.geocities.com/namjunepaik/
Tim Hawkinson - http://www.whitney.org/exhibition/feat_hawk.shtml
Yayoi Kusama - http://www.bombsite.com/archive/kusama/portfolio/index.html; http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1998/kusama/
Sculpture is a medium peculiarly located at the juncture between stillness and motion, time arrested and time passing. *
Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture
A large number of postwar European and American sculptors became interested in both theater and the extended experience of time. This expanded field includes kinetic and light art, environmental works, architecture, as well as happenings and performance art. Real time and real motion was central to much of the work then and has remained to be at the core of our experience of installation works now. As viewers we are most often asked to perform, move, reconsider our position in the space and in relation to the world.
Most Importantly you will become aware of the intrinsically interdisciplinary nature of sculpture and its relation to fields such as sociology and urban planning, urbanism and architecture, design and landscape design.
The concept of Gestalt, an idea the sculptor Robert Morris dealt with specially, is notions that we have a bodily relationship with forms, no matter how abstract that occupies our bodily space.
I want you to make a work of Art that literally confrounts us, one that causes a bodily reaction.
A work that can be placed in the landscape at Reed College and can have an effect on the population that encounters the work.
A work that gives people an inspirational space, a new experience of the place they are in- or where they are going in life.
The work must be temporarily- set up and taken down easily. We must all regester our work with Physical Plant.
Sketches:
1.Locate spaces that you could integrate work that would be in dialogue with that space either physically or conceptually.
2. Make a model of the piece in space.
3. Explore various spaces to put the work into; photograph and super impose the work into these spaces.
4. Work Collaboratively- make sure each member has an assignment!!!
Judith Stein “Space and Place” The work of Maya Lyn
Roselind Krause “ Sculpture in the Expanded Field’*
“The History of Sculpture coincides with the development of two bodies of thought, phenomenology and structural linguistics, in which meaning is understood to depend on the way that any form of being contains the latent experience of its opposite; simultaneity always containing an implicit experience of sequence. One of the striking aspects of modern sculpture is the way in which it manifests its makers’ growing awareness that sculpture is a medium peculiarly located at the juncture between stillness and motion, time arrested and time passing.
From this tension, which defines the very condition of sculpture, comes its enormous expressive power. “
Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture
Artists
Mel Chin - http://www.satorimedia.com/fmraWeb/chin.htm
Samuel Mockbee - http://www.ruralstudio.com/sambomemorial.htm
Maya Lyn - http://www.pbs.org/art21/
Mary Miss - http://www.marymiss.com/index.html
Allen Wexner - http://www.allanwexlerstudio.com
Andrea Zittel - http://www.zittel.org/
Emily Jacir - http://www.stationmuseum.com/Made_in_Palestine-Emily_Jacir/jacir.html; http://www.columbia.edu/cu/museo/6/jacir/
Alfredo Jaar - http://www.alfredojaar.net/
Buster Simpson - http://www.bustersimpson.net
Gas Works:
http://www.gasworks.org.uk/varts/past/index.htm
INVA
http://www.iniva.org
The Mattress Factory
http://www.mattress.org/
 Installation View |
 Hannah DeCell |
 Nadia Fay |
 Michelle Kollmeier |
 Andrew Eustis |
 Anthony Cafiero |
 Tamara Larson |
 Chris Hughes |
 Art Bass |
 Matt Guertin |
 Ryan Dunn |
 Elliot Kapit |
 Orin Bassof |
 Lotus Greener |
 |
"The futurist movement, founded in Italy in 1909 by the poet Filippo Marinetti- and later attracting the artists such as Umberto Boccioni-sought means of over turning the ossified, orthodox structures of academicism and replacing them with modalities of a machine aesthetic which celebrated speed, power, modernity. As a body born from a fusion of the organic and the technological, the man as a machine moving through space, the figure can be read as the quintessential twenty first-century body."
We will look at advances in mechanization and automation in the first quarter of the century that brought about a change in the way that artist viewed the world and in the way in which they expressed that view.
In your work, look at the mechanical essence of the body form. Extract, abstract or reference anatomical forms. Your primary materials will be metal and cast fiber, so that the piece has a fabricated rather than hand modeled feel. The scale of the work needs to be in relation to your body. For example if you chose to make a leg, that leg will be life size.
Metal fabrication, riveting, and welding will be covered. For those of you who have not worked with steel and wish to learn, you will need to put extra time in to practice before you fabricate your work. Other materials such as plaster casting over an armature and paper casting will be covered.
 Susan Reagel |
 Jessica Mclaughlin |
 Alexis Peterka |
Look at the gesture of the body as a language. We will study the human figure anatomically, for its expressive qualities, and as a political battleground. For your final work you will extract or abstract a portion of the body to express a particular concept. Working directly from the model, you will learn to express the bodies interior movements. We will first explore the representation of the human figure in the history of sculpture. The work of August Rodin, will be discussed as well as those that were influenced by his work. Lectures and readings directly related to the current exhibition Samizdat, in the Cooley Gallery as well as Biomorphic and Surrealist abstraction will be given. Additionally you will become familiar with contemporary artist using the body in their work.
 Orin Bassoff |
 Lucas Ramsey |
 Andrew Eustis |
 Ryan Dunn |
 Louts Greener |
 Michelle Kollmeier |
 Anthony Cafiero |
 Nadia Fay |
 ChrisHughes/Tamara Larson |
|
A large number of postwar European and American sculptors became interested in both theater and the extended experience of time. This expanded field includes kinetic and light art, environmental works, architecture, as well as happenings and performance art. Real time and real motion was central to much of the work then and has remained to be at the core of our experience as art views of installation works now. As views we are most often asked to perform, move, reconsider our position in the space and in relation to the world.The concept of Gestalt, an idea the sculptor Robert Morris dealt with specially, is a notion that we have a bodily relationship with forms, no matter how abstract, that occupy our bodily space.
For your first quick project, respond to the notion of gestalt, repition and movement. Make a simple geometric or found element form that moves through space, making a path for us to follow in the landscape.
For the longer assignment, explore natural form or phenomena that our bodies respond to. For example making a work that naturally changes or a work that is made by our actions. Consider the space you put the work into. Rather than making a monumental form, implode the element into the landscape.
 Jesse McLaughlin |
 Thesis Chair |
 Jason Julian |
 Matt Hunter |
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